Finish Pt 1

Luke 14:28-30

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it –  29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,  30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'

2 Tim 4:7.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Today is 12/1/13

Significance of Numbers

1 – Possibilities

3 – Excellence

4 – New Dimensions

7 – Completion (full, satisfied, enough)

8 – New Beginnings (first of a new series)

12 – Governmental order & structural order

            Sons / tribes of Israel

            Temple, Heaven

            Apostles

            Months of the year

The reason we repeat cycles & don’t breaking through

            We don’t govern our year – we don’t complete all 12 months of the year

The world convinces us that we must have something

Gen 3:6.  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

It’s going to make us look good, feel good, or make people look up to us

The world offers us False Joy

In exchange the world’s systems takes months from us

Never finish 12 months – we come to the end of the year, but it was not complete

            Loose focused on our goals & objectives

We start the New Year in lack

• ·         No energy to serve the Lord
• ·         Nothing to give to the Lord
• ·         No seed for the New Season

We need to Finish this year 

            Govern the full 12 months

                        Renew our New Year’s resolutions today

Need seed for next year

Prophesy to you about next year – 2014

How many children did Jacob have?  13.  12 + 1 Dinah

• 12 tribes, which represents government
• 12 Apostles

13 represents the gateway from one dimension to another

            Goes in and out of the world

Jesus (13^th) came to open new dimensions & possibilities of abundance

Gen 28:12.  Then [Jacob] dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

John 1:51.  And He said to [Nathanael], "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." 

Next year a gateway is opening to new dimensions & possibilities of abundance

            Lunar calendar – 13 New Moons in 2014 – 13 months

What we’re doing in completing this year is not just for this year

But for the possibilities and promise of next year

Focus on temporary Pleasure, not the Promise – causes us to spill the seed

• ·         Gen 38:8-9

And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.  9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

2014 will build on what already start and finish in 2013

We cannot start the New Year doing things we should have finished

But, if we ‘bear down’ and finish this year, God will give us the authority to say…

Sun stand still – need more time to finish something (Josh 10:12-14)

Rev 12:1-6

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.

3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. 5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Woman w/ crown of 12 stars, and womb ready to deliver – 13

• ·        Targeted by the great dragon
• ·        Went into the desert – a place prepared by God

1. Protection
2. Separation from the world’s system
3. Retraining – renewing the mind

We’re at the gateway of the experience of a new dimension

            The enemy is right there to abort it

                        Leaving us to repeat the cycle

It’s going to be a fight to be victorious

            It requires discipline, persistence & focus

Joshua marched around Jericho 13x

          12 + 1

Staying Even During the Holidays

3 John 2.  Beloved, I wish above all things that you will prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.

PROSPER – “Make Friends of Money”

Luke 16:9.  "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 

1.  Spend time with it

I didn’t say “Spend it”; I said “Spend time with it.”

If you want friends, you must be friendly.  Prov 18:24

We aren’t very good friends of money because we don’t spend enough time with it

2.  Check on it & account for it (care what happens to it)

You must pay attention to your financial status

3.  Know its value

Money is more important than most of the things – because it takes money to get things

4.  Make room for more – Get rid of the clutter

5.  Increase it – Multiply it

Donna Summer attitude:  She works hard for the money

Make your money work for you…

                        One way is to make your money work for the Kingdom

Jesus speaks repeatedly about “unprofitable servants”

6.  Create an active stream or a flow

Luke 6:38.  Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosom.

HEALTH

We go to God & the Word for our healing

We must start going to God & the Word for our health

            When we become healthy, we won’t always need healing

Rom 12:1.  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

We’ve interpreted that scripture spirituality and externally

Totally disregarding the health component

We must deal with the issue of our appetites

• ·         Eating the forbidden fruit
• ·         Esau traded the birthright
• ·         Israel got stuck in the wilderness – tempted God asking meat for their lust
• ·         Jesus’ 1st temptation to “change the stones to bread” was to about appetite

Prov 23:2.  Put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.

• ·         High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis

Diet & exercise:

1 Cor 6:19-20

Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

SOUL – Not getting mad, but getting even

Being balanced in your emotions

When your soul is in charge, you are controlled by your feelings & emotions

Our soul can open a door giving place to the devil in our emotions

Understanding our emotions, responding & dealing with them appropriately

Rest:  God did

Get away:  Mark 6.  Jesus made the disciples take a vacation after a spiritual high

            Change locations, change activities, period of time

Have a support system – friends, family, church, group

Laugh  

A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. Prov 17:2

Laughter lowers stress, boosts immune system and is contagious.

KEY:  At the heart of Getting Even…

Rom 12:2.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Renewed in your mind

            Input new information

Change your thinking

You can only live at the level of your thinking 

God is not going to increase you until you increase your capacity

We've made it through the first 10 months…

Gal 5:1.  Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

The Danger of January 2014:  Being back at the starting line

Gal 5:7.  You did run well; who or what hindered you…?

In 2 months we can undo what we’ve worked 10 months for

We are contending with a System

Luke 16:8.  So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation* than the sons of light.

• ·         Geneá:   literally means space of time, which signifies the purpose of a time

They understand their system, they work their system

They understand the timing, and they move in the moment

The system is seizing their moment

The system survives by doing in 2 months more than it’s done in 10

Their Black Friday – designed to turn a profit

Becomes Your Red Friday

They begin by controlling the atmosphere – sight, sound, smells

Caught up in the “Holiday Spirit”

                        In other words, not controlling ourselves

Eph 5:18.  Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.

Ásœtos:  prodigal, one who spends too much,

easily influenced by the surrounding temptations

 The system gets us drunk…

• The system will govern our time:  midnight sales
• The system will govern our money:  entice us to spend
• The system will govern our health:  promote food, drink & parties

            In January they will offer us Health clubs & diets

The system attacks every area in 3 John 2 – prosperity, health, the soul

In addition to the financial pressures

There’s the stress of the holidays – cleaning, shopping, baking, entertaining

Unrealistic expectations leading to disappointment

Then there’s the spiritual component

X Christ out of His own holy day 

            Teach our children to have faith in Santa Claus

We’re so caught up in their ‘spirit’ that we don’t stand for what we say we believe

            Then spend months shaking off the hangover

Focus on Finishing

2 Tim 4:7.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Finish the Race

1. Stick to a budget for Christmas spending
   1. 1. Don’t spend next year’s tax return
2. Don’t use the holidays as an excuse to indulge
   1. Exercise
3. Relax; resist the stress of the holidays
   1. Be realistic about your expectations
4. Keep Christ in Christmas

Don’t forsake your system now, for the world’s system

            You’re Getting Even

Putting the "Wow" in the WOW Church

1 Kings 10:4-9

And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 5 the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. 6 Then she said to the king: "It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. 7 However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard. 8 Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! 9 Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness."

The Queen of Sheba was ‘blown away’ by their attitudes

Every entity understands the importance of controlling attitude & atmosphere 

When you’re shopping

• ·         Music

Watching movies

• ·         Music

Watching TV

• ·         Laugh tracks

Live shows, games shows, talk shows

• ·        

Awards shows

• ·         Seat fillers

Athletic events

• ·         Cheerleaders

Importance of controlling the atmosphere

            Eph 2:2.  “Prince of the power of the air”

More than emotions… it is a state of mind

Believers have the advantage: 

Enthusiasm: God with-in; God inspired

The Bible tells us what attitudes to have:

Ps 100:1-5

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.

3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.

Eph 6:7.  Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  NLT

James 1:2-4

Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Our attitude is not left up to our emotions

The Right Attitude is a Decision

Ps 34:1-3

I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

2.  My soul shall make its boast in the LORD; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.

3.  Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.

1. It begins with the will (God with-in)
2. It flows to the soul (emotion)
3. It spreads to others

“Nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm”

Your attitude affects others

2 Cor 9:1-2

There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints. 2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. NIV

Even God is moved by your attitude

Deut 28:47-48

"Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.

2 Cor 9:7.  So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Luke 7:31-32

"To what can I compare the people of this generation?" Jesus asked. "How can I describe them? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

'We played wedding songs, and you didn't dance,

so we played funeral songs, and you didn't weep.'

Rev 3:15-16

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

This is what we decide:

Rom 12:11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. NIV

“Be Happy” – 1 Kings 10:8

• ·         Control the atmosphere
• ·         Create the feeling that good things are about to happen in your church
• ·         Inspire people to join in the excitement

If there’s not excitement in AGF, it’s not because exciting things are not happening; it’s because we don’t have enthusiasm:

• ·         Enthusiasm comes from inside
• ·         Excitement comes from outside

 “He who rules his spirit is greater than he who rules a city”.  Prov 16:32

Ministry of the Face

1 Thess 2:17.  But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored more eagerly to see your face with great desire.

Your attitude helps you “Get Even”

• ·         Prov 15:13 A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance,

But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

• ·         Prov 17:22 A merry heart does good, like medicine,

But a broken spirit dries the bones.

Happy people make more money, have better immune-systems, and are more creative

You can master our attitude and master your life

A Harvard Research project and a Carnegie foundation study, both found that 85% of people’s success can be attributed to attitude, while only 15% is due to knowledge, education, technical skill or luck.

The Cos Report on American Business said that 94% of all Fortune 500 executives attribute their success more to attitude than to any other basic ingredient.

According to Lyle Schaeller, one of the most knowledgeable persons in America in the area of Church Growth and congregational life, “The most crucial factor in church growth is the attitude of the members... a common characteristic of grow­ing congregations is that the members are enthusiastic about their faith as Chris­tians, about the congregation of which they are members, and about the life, programs and ministry of that congregation.”

The WOW Church

Our WOW Church

We think we know church – take for granted

            We follow old patterns – try to impose those patterns

                        Must know the house that you’re in

Changing the World

By Changing Lives

By Changing the Way We Do Church

Word

Not just information, but Revelation

2 Peter 1:12.  For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth.

Edify, equip, empower

• ·         Engage with the teaching
• ·         Applying the Word to daily life
• ·         Learning to “handle” the Word

2 Tim 2:15-17

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer.

One Another

Mark 12:29-31

Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.  31 And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

1 John 4:20-21

If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

1. Love
2. Member of
3. Kindly affectionate to
4. Honor
5. Preferring
6. Same mind
7. Receive, accept
8. Admonish, warn
9. Care for

10. Serve

11. Bear burdens

12. Bear with in love

13. Speak to truth with

14. Be kind to

15. Be tenderhearted to

16. Forgive

17. Encourage

18. Teach

19. Comfort

20. Edify

21. Daily exhort

22. Be considerate of

23. Stir up

24. Confess trespasses to

25. Pray for

26. Have compassion for

27. Be courteous to

28. Be hospitable to

29. Minister your gift to

30. Submit to

31. Fellowship with

Hospitality to Strangers

Heb 13:2.  Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.

Embracing New Members

The church has always had problems embracing new members

            Acts 6 – neglect in multiplication

            Acts 15 – meet our standards instead of God’s

Rom 11:17.  If some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.

Worship

A lot of you come from churches that do “Devotion”

            Black church: sing the condition, or entertainment, i.e. choir

Worth-ship:  pursuit

Men, understand Respect

Spiritual Implications of Worship

2 Kings 3:15-16

But now bring me a musician."

Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. 16 And he said, "Thus says the Lord:

Ps 149:5-9

Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud on their beds.

6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand,

7 To execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples;

8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;

9 To execute on them the written judgment – This honor have all His saints.  Praise the Lord!

Worship Stirs Faith and Activates the Promise

Isa 54:1-3

"Sing, O barren, you who have not borne!

Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child!

For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman," says the Lord.

2 "Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings;

Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.

3 For you shall expand to the right and to the left,

And your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.

That’s why there is Resistance to Worship:

Our enemy wants to keep us from worshiping because he is afraid of what will happen when we Worship Corporately with One Voice

Anytime we make the decision to worship, the enemy will increase our workload

Ex 5:1-9

Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.'"

2 And Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go."

3 So they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword."

4 Then the king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor." 5 And Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!"

6 So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, 7 "You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' 9 Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words."   NKJV

WOW – Creativity & Excellence

Why we do things the way we do…

An expression of the Prophetic

Having a clear understanding of the times, to know what we should do

• ·         Our message must be relevant and applicable
• ·         What we do must be significant (important, w/meaning)

Ezek 4:1-8

"Now, son of man, take a clay tablet, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. 2 Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. 3 Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

4 "Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. 5 I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the house of Israel.

6 "After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the house of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. 7 Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. 8 I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.  NIV

Heb 8:6,

            Whatever is excellent at one level is only mediocre at the next level

                        We must be relentless in the pursuit & never satisfied

Let My Leaders Go (Perth)

Exodus 3: God called Moses to deliver His people.

Before God can free His people, the leader must be freed

Moses is an archetype of leadership

            His gift had to be developed and tempered

The first time Moses grasped at the leadership ring, someone died

            He murdered a man

He went before he was sent.

            How many of us established leaders have left dead bodies in our wake?

Anointing, gifting

            Preparation and skill. Ex.David

When David killed someone, they were supposed to die

            There was rejoicing and no regret

Our leadership is supposed to produce life, not death

We must remember that we are stewards of vision and ideas

We are leaders of people

Not just any people; “His people”

Ex 3:5. God told Moses to take his shoes off, because He was standing on holy ground.

God used shepherding to train two of the greatest leaders in the Old Testament

            Shepherding involves setting boundaries for the sheep

God had to teach Moses some things about setting boundaries for himself

“This is my territory.  It’s holy.  If you cross this boundary, leave your shoes on the other side.

Shoes carry the residue of every place we’ve been and everything we’ve stepped in

            Custom of washing feet at the entrance of Middle Eastern home

                        “Don’t bring your stuff into my house”

As spiritual leaders we should spend time in His presence

But we must know the boundaries for His presence

God, through Jeremiah, defines His boundaries:

“If you extract the precious from the worthless, you will become My spokesman”  15:19

Things that have no value; dead works – produce no life; good intentions

Some things have been entrusted to us, but some things are to remain His. 

Sometimes in our success as leaders, we think we can handle what belongs to God.  It’s His church.  We’re just stewards with fancy titles.  He has the final say

We must learn to set appropriate boundaries for ourselves

Boundaries that will help us stay balanced

Subject to burnout

            Elijah and Sampson

                        Sabbath:

Subject to being seduced by leadership

Guard the title rather than accomplishment of vision

Fight to stay in the position, rather than accomplishment of the purpose

            Willing to slow the movement, because more concerned about personal status

Subject to the seduction of your flesh (lusts)

To be effective, boundaries must be communicated

• ·        

We must teach our followers to respect the boundaries of our family and our personal time

Take your shoes off when you go home

Communicate appropriate times for calling. 

Let your family know that you value time with them & don’t bring work ‘stuff’ into their time.

We must teach our family to respect boundaries for being in the presence of God

Sometimes we must bring our family into His presence with us.

Ex 3:11.  But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

Ex 4:14.  So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses

Thinly veiled in Moses’ resistance was disappointment

Moses had spent the last 40 years living in disappointment.

Look closely at Moses’ excuses ~vs~ his prepared for such a moment  

1. raised in the palace of Pharaoh,
2. exposed to the affairs of state,
3. taught Hebrew customs by his birth mother,

No one was better qualified than Moses for this task.  No one!

First, Moses had to be delivered from disappointment

What did Moses have to be disappointed about

His life hadn’t turned out as planned. 

The disappointment stemmed his attempt to fulfill his destiny

Moses had actually dreamed of coming to the rescue of the Israelites

His Hebrew brothers rejected him

Pharaoh found out and sought to kill Moses

He became a fugitive

So, instead of leading one group, he was now rejected by two groups

This rejection fostered his disappointment,

His disappointment lead to him doubting himself – esteem issues

So when destiny offered him a second chance, he declined.

We can easily hear the insecurities in his confrontation with God, but listen closer… that’s disappointment: 

“I had been trained for greatness, but now I’m herding sheep. 

I would have sacrificed the palace to deliver my people,

but now I’m a nomad in the desert.”

“Okay, here’s what I’m really thinking: I already tried to deliver them, but they didn’t want me.”

It’s hard when you want more for a people than they want for themselves. 

            Rejection and disappointment can get to us as ministers

Rejection, disappointment and discouragement are all attached to leadership

There's no secret for dealing with them

Remember God’s cure for Moses’ disappointment; “I Am with you” (Exodus 3:12-14).

Ex 3:12.  When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

Moses didn’t ask Pharaoh to free the Israelites

He asked to simply go three days journey into the desert to worship their God

Pharaoh knew that if he released them to truly worship, they could never be slaves again. 

Before we can lead the people into worship, the leader must be free to worship first.

Moses spent many of his long days herding sheep in the mountain regions of the Sinai

The same area where he would later receive the 10 commandments

He only viewed it as a work place and failed to recognize it for what it truly was

Moses was on the Mount of the Lord (Ex 3:1), standing on “holy ground.” 

But he was so busy in his work that he didn’t see it as a place of worship

How true is that of us as leaders? 

• ·         How often do we miss the worship of God doing the work of God? 
• ·         How often do we miss the presence of God because we’re consumed with the present? 

God has to set a bush on fire to get our attention

The greatest leadership responsibility is to spend time in the presence of God! 

Without that all of our efforts are hollow. 

We must teach the people about true worship – it’s at the heart of their freedom

When Moses asked Pharaoh to let the people go worship, what did Pharaoh do?

Pharaoh increased the workload to prevent the worship

We worship on the Pharaoh’s terms:

            Ex 8:25.  Sacrifice in the land

            Ex 10:8-11.  Leave the children

            Ex 10:24-26.  Don’t take your offerings

Ex 34:19 “None shall appear before me empty-handed.”